20th Sunday after Trinity + Matthew 22:1-14 + October 2, 2016
Order of Holy Communion - Pg. 15
Hymn # 239 Come, Thou Almighty KingReadings
Collect for the 20th Sunday after Trinity
Sermon on the Holy Gospel
Grace
and Peace be unto You from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) “The Kingdom of heaven is like a certain
king who arranged a marriage for his son.” What is this blessed union which
God the Father, the King of all things, arranges for His Only-Begotten Son? It
is the incarnation. God the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, He who in
the beginning “was with God and was God”
(John 1:1), “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The incarnation of
the Only-Begotten Son of God is a true marriage of two different things, for in
the incarnation God becomes man yet remains fully God. As an earthly marriage
takes two people and unites them into one flesh, so the incarnation unites the
divine nature with human nature in the mystery of the ages. God prepares this
blessed union for His Son so that, becoming enfleshed, the Son of God might be
made like us in all things and live a fully human life. The incarnation is the
heart of the gospel. It is what makes the gospel good news. The gospel message
is that Christ has died to atone for the sins of the entire world, so that all
who repent of their sins and believe that Christ’s death atones for their sins
have the forgiveness of all their sins. The incarnation, the blessed union of
the divine and human natures in the person of Christ make the gospel possible.
God cannot suffer or die. Man cannot atone for the sins of his neighbor, let
alone his own sins. Therefore the Only-Begotten Son unites with human flesh and
becomes fully man so that He was able to suffer “for us in the flesh” (1
Peter 4:1). His human nature is able to suffer and die. His divine nature,
being united to His human nature, makes it possible for that death to atone for
the sins of the entire world and all its inhabitants. So it is not a mere man
who has died for your sins, but God in human flesh who has suffered for your
sins died to atone for them.
2) This is the marriage, the union, which the Father
then invites all people to attend, for the King “send out his servants to
call those who were invited to the wedding.” We see this call taking place,
not once, not twice, but continually throughout history. The Jews were initially
called to witness this blessed marriage of God and Man, “and they were not
willing to come.” So throughout the four gospels we see the Jews rejecting
Jesus Himself, stopping up their ears to His teaching, and despising His mercy.
But the Lord demonstrates His mercy in that He continued to call His people to
the union of His Son so that they might enjoy all the benefits of that union.
He calls them tenderly. His invitation is meant to lure them to this marriage, “See,
I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle are killed, and all
things are ready. Come to the wedding.” He offers them all the blessings of
the wedding. The fruits of this union between God and Man in Christ Jesus are
everlasting righteousness, the forgiveness of all one’s sins, and eternal
innocence and bliss. Yet the Jews despise the invitation. “They made light
of it and went their ways, one to his own farm another to his business.” We
see this rejection of the gospel of Christ in every age of the world, Jesus day
was no different from ours. Today we see countless people put all sorts of work
into their earthly homes but who give no thought whatsoever to their heavenly
home. Today we see many who diligently work for a comfortable life in this
world, all the while neglecting their eternal comfort which comes through the
regular hearing and studying the Word.
3) While many neglect the invitation to this blessed
union of God and man in Christ, others take a more violent approach. Jesus
says, “The rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed
them.” So the Jews treated the prophets and apostles spitefully,
shamefully, ending their lives, just as they did the Lord Himself. Today
preachers aren’t generally murdered, but many are treated spitefully, deprived
of their living from the Word, or ignored or passed by thoughtlessly. The
heavenly Father has but one response to both kinds of people who reject the invitation
of the gospel, whether through neglect or violence, and that is punishment.
Jesus says, “When the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out
his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” We see
that this happened quite literally to the Jews in 70 AD when the Romans razed
Jerusalem and her temple to the ground, just as Jesus has said it would happen.
So God’s wrath today remains on all who reject the Gospel and all who despise
it, think little of it, and treat it with disdain and disregard.
4) But again God shows His graciousness. After being
rejected, after having his servants seized, mistreated, even killed, the king
does not retract his invitation. He will have a full banquet hall in spite of
the rejection of so many. He commands his servants again, “Go into the
highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” He could have
easily retracted his invitation but he does not let the unworthy, those who
refuse the invitation, ruin in for all mankind. We see this in the book of
Acts, that when the Jews reject the gospel and Paul, he turns to the gentiles
because the banquet hall must be filled! God the Father wants all men to
experience the blessings of the incarnation. This much is true because He says
through St. Paul that He “desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”
(1 Timothy 2:4). He does not desire the death of sinners but that they turn
from their sins and have live through faith in the Gospel. Paul tells us this
in Acts 17:30 when he says that God “now
commands all men everywhere to repent,” that is, to put off their sins, to
sorrow over their sins, and seek to be rid of them. The gospel invitation still
goes out today, to those who are considered by the world to be both good and
bad, for the gospel is not simply for those who have religious inclinations or
upbringings, it is for all mankind, since Christ has died for the sins of the
entire world. In the parable, the servants gather many in to the banquet hall
to enjoy the blessings of the union of the king’s Son. So it is in every age of
the world. It is true that many, most in fact, reject the gospel and consider
themselves unworthy of everlasting life and the forgiveness of all their sins.
But in every age there are many who, by the power of the Holy Spirt, repent of
their sins and believe the gospel and enjoy all the blessings the enfleshed Son
of God earned for us in His sinless life and by His innocent death.
5) At
the conclusion of the parable something odd happens. The king sees a man in the
banquet hall who is not wearing a wedding garment. We might be tempted to look
at this through our modern experience and scratch our heads at the king’s
unwillingness to tolerate someone who isn’t dressed appropriately. But it is
important to remember that the king would have furnished his guests each with a
wedding garment. That was ancient near eastern custom. It also makes sense from
the text. The king asks the man, “Friend,
how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.”
If it were simply that the man didn’t own a wedding garment wouldn’t he have
said so? Also, since the king commanded his servants to fill up his banquet
hall with anyone off the street, it makes sense that he would provide such
people with a garment since they were not prepared for the wedding. This shows
the king’s graciousness yet again, in that what God requires of us He provides
for us. The wedding garment is Christ Himself, and faith is how we “wear” Christ.
St. Paul tells us in Romans 13:14 to “put
on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In Galatians 3:27 he writes, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put
on Christ,” meaning that in baptism you have been clothed with
Christ so that you possess all that He has and wear Him like a garment. Paul
also says in Colossians 3:10 that
we are to “put on the new man who is renewed
in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” The garment required for entry into the wedding in Christ, and we wear
Christ, we put Him on, by faith, that is, by believing His gospel and trusting
His Word.
6) Christ is the wedding union and all the blessings of that
union. Christ is the garment of righteousness we wear which covers all our
sins. Christ is the one who graciously gives us this garment since we poor
sinners cannot provide it for ourselves. Christ the wedding. Christ the
garment. Christ the giver of everything that is needed for our salvation. Let
not, as thethose unworthy men in the parable, forsake the Lord’s invitation
because of farm and business, that is, the things of this life and its
pleasures. Let us not, as the Jews, close our ears to even the slightest bit to
the invitation God sends out in the promise of the Gospel. What He says to His
guests He says to you each day, “See, I
have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things
are ready. Come to the wedding.” He lays before you again today all the blessings
of the wedding. He covers you His righteousness. He gives you His blessedness.
He offers you His innocence from every sin. This is the fruit of that blessed
union between God and Man, that our Lord Jesus Christ has won for you and gives
you today once again. Amen
May the peace of God which passes all human understanding
guard your hears and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.